donga

Borrowed from Afrikaans donga, borrowed from Zulu ū́dongá, from Proto-Bantu *mʊ̀dòngà.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɔŋɡə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɒŋɡə/

donga (plural dongas)

1. (South Africa) A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.

   Synonyms: arroyo, wadi, wash

   • 1900, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Halt at Bloemfontein”, in The Great Boer War, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 349:

     Major Pack-Beresford and other officers were shot down, and every unhorsed man remained necessarily as a prisoner under the very muzzles of the riflemen in the donga.

   • 1901, Ernest William Hornung, “The Knees of the Gods”, in Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman, Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 284:

     There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers.

   • 1948, Henry Vollam Morton, In Search of South Africa‎^[1], Methuen, page 168:

     Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.

   • 1999, JM Coetzee, Disgrace, Vintage, published 2000, page 98:

     Count yourself lucky not to be a prisoner in the car at this moment, speeding away, or at the bottom of a donga with a bullet in your head.

• Jean Bradford, A Dictionary of South African English, Oxford (1978).

Unknown; probably connected in some way with Etymology 1.^[1]

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /dɔŋə/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

donga (plural dongas)

1. (Australia) A transportable building providing accommodation for one person, often used on remote work sites or as tourist accommodation.
   • 2004, Susie Ashworth, Rebecca Turner, Simone Egger, Western Australia, Lonely Planet, page 152:

     Menzies Hotel ([Ph] 9024 2043; 22 Shenton St; s/d $48/65, donga $75) has old-style hotel rooms as well as - for that real goldfields experience - dongas (temporary miner′s abode, usually made from corrugated iron), and also serves all meals.

   • 2004, James Woodford, The Dog Fence, page 225:

     He not only expects his fence to be perfect, he also expects his dongas to be the best workman′s huts in Australia, and that is what they are.

   • 2009, David Marr, The Ibdian Ocean Solution, Robyn Davidson (editor), The Best Australian Essays 2009, page 118,

     Workers building roads in the bush sleep in dongas like these and are well paid for their discomfort.

• Usually used in outback Australia, especially the northwest.

donga (plural dongas)

1. Alternative spelling of donger (“penis”).

• Dagon, Dogan, Gonda, dango, dogan, goand, gonad

From Zulu udonga.

donga (plural dongas)

1. donga

• → English: donga
• → German: Donga

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

donga (intransitive)

1. there is, there are

   mandi hilhil donga

   there are many people

2. to have, belong, be at, reside, dwell
3. be married to

   anga jikko dongjok

   I have married a wife

Borrowed from Slavic, perhaps from South Slavic. Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *dǫga. Compare Bulgarian дъга (dǎga, “arc; stave; rainbow”), Serbo-Croatian ду́га / dúga (“stave; rainbow”), Slovene doga (“stave”), Slovak dúha (“stave; rainbow”). First attested in 1233.^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): [ˈdoŋɡɒ]
• Hyphenation: don‧ga
• Rhymes: -ɡɒ

donga (plural dongák)

1. stave (a slightly bent wooden board that forms the sides and bottom of a larger wooden vessel (e.g. barrel, tub, vat))
2. (by extension, in compound words) barrel, barrellike, arc-shaped

   dongaboltozat ― barrel vault

• donga in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• donga in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).

donga

1. Rōmaji transcription of どんが